According to the most recent information forwarded by an Intel official on Tuesday, the production of the chipmaker’s next-generation Xeon quad-core server chips will commence ahead of schedule! As such, the new chips would expectedly become a part of the systems in 2010 first quarter.

Referring to the market need for lower-power systems, Sean Maloney, EVP and co-director of the Intel Architecture Group, presented the new Xeons at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. Talking about measures the company is taking to address the power problem, Maloney cited denser packages; denser blades; optimized racks; and data-center containerization.

To be based on the Westmere microarchitecture, the chips – to be redubbed ‘microservers’ - will comprise a new branch of the Xeon 5000 line of processors. The chips will be manufactured using the 32-nanometer process, and will carry several upgrades over the currently-available Xeon server chips which are manufactured using the 45-nm process.

Noting that the new Xeon chips are “ahead of the company’s expectations from a production, qualification and a ramp perspective,” Kirk Skaugen - VP and general manager of Intel's server platforms group - said during an interview at the Developer Forum that the company is “on track for production in the first quarter.”

Skaugen added that the chips will ship to system makers, and the new chip-based servers will hit the markets “around that same time frame.”